The present invention relates to a system and method for misting a liquid agent that is to be used for suppression and inertion, or explosion suppression and inertion.
Current portable, hand-held and fixed extinguishers rely on internal pressure to force the discharge of fire suppression or inertion agents through a nozzle to produce a spray pattern to attempt to suppress or extinguish fires (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,601, which discloses a means for pressurizing a fire-fighting liquid in a container, and injects gas having a pressure of at least 100 bar into a discharge line to drive out the liquid).
Tests have shown that for a water/potassium acetate agent in current commercial extinguishers the spray produced completely fails to perform as a fire extinguishant for Class B fires. However, a functional and effective potassium acetate based fire extinguisher would have several very important advantages over existing Halon 1301 and 1211, hydrofluorocarbons (HFC""s), and hydrofluoropoly-ether (HFPE) based extinguishers. One of the most important attributes of a potassium acetate based extinguisher is its lack of fluorine in the agent molecule, and therefore the absence of generated hydrogen fluoride (HF) upon discharge of the agent into a fire. This is of particular importance in fire suppression scenarios in a compartment where people are located, such as crewmen in a military vehicle or the like. Hydrogen fluoride can be deadly at air concentration levels of even 100 ppm. Typical hydrogen fluoride concentration levels in enclosed spaces where HFC""s are employed in fire suppression tests have been shown to rapidly reach levels of 4000 ppm. Inhalation of air containing hydrogen fluoride at such levels would be almost instantaneously lethal.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a means of effectively delivering, i.e. misting, a non-hydrogen fluoride generating extinguishing agent, and to enhance the fire suppressing performance of such an agent, such as potassium acetate. In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide continuous misting of such an agent, either in hand-held fire extinguishers or in fixed systems.